Mary Hill (1842-1937) was the oldest daughter of Richard Hill (1814-1873) from Lincolnshire and Elizabeth (née Bastian) (1822-1913) from Cornwall. Mary was one of ten children and her siblings married into many of the early local settler families including the Dawe, Marshall, Atkinson, Williams, Holman and Watters families.
Mary Hill was one of the first settler children born in the district. The Hill and Bastian families being two of the first settler families in District C (the Willunga District) arriving in 1839 and 1840 respectively. Richard Hill was a cousin of the Atkinson family, arguably one of the most significant, and wealthiest, of the settler families. Sampson Bastian senior (Mary’s grandfather) and the Bastian family were heavily involved in the slate quarrying industry. Mary was educated at James Bailey Bassett’s School in Willunga and later at Miss Beck’s private school.
Thomas Storey Aldam (1833-1883), aged 33 years, and Mary (née Hill) (1842-1937), aged 24 years, married at Holy Trinity Church in Adelaide on 28 June 1866. Thomas and Mary Aldam had eight children (six boys and two girls):
- Lonsdale (1867-1867)
- Thomas Storey (1868-1966)
- Belton Hill (1871-1959)
- Mary Maud (1873-1962)
- Frank Lonsdale (1875-1949)
- Alfred Maurice (1877-1952)
- Emily Charlotte (known as “Lottie”) (1879-1972)
- Wilfred (1881-1967)
Thomas and his wife Mary were living in Willunga by July 1867 and by April 1871 they were living at Waverley Park Homestead. In March 1874 they entered into a seven-year lease for the property. In March 1874 they entered into a seven-year lease for the property. In 1879 Kell sold the property to John Allen and the Aldam family moved out. Then in 1880 Thomas purchased more than 30 acres of land in section 247 of the Hundred of Willunga (bounded by Main Road to the east, Norman Road to the west and Aldinga Road to the south). The Aldam family owned this land for the better part of a century.
Mary was widowed at the age of 41 years when Thomas Storey Aldam, aged 50 years, died on 7 November 1883 at the residence of William Sara in North Adelaide. Mary and the children moved to Eton Street in Malvern.She was left with seven surviving children aged between 2 and 16 years old. She may have benefitted from leases on the property holdings (including more than 30 acres in section 247) that belonged to her deceased husband Thomas Storey Aldam as well as land inherited from her father Richard Hill.
By 1891 she had returned to Willunga and in March 1891 Mary Aldam leased section 235 and part of section 234 from Henry Malpas for ten years (CT 176/180) but she surrendered the lease in 1894. An account of the 1902 floods mentioned that her “homestead was one sheet of water, the flood being quite 2 ft. deep around the stacks and outhouses” (<em>Chronicle</em> 20 Dec 1902:36). In 1905 Mrs. Mary Aldam and her two unmarried sisters Miss Elizabeth and Miss Jane Hill sold 337 acres of land (Sections 760 and 1241) that they had inherited from their father Richard Hill.
Mary was active at this time with the Willunga Agricultural Society and St Stephen’s Church. In the years before World War 1 (1910-1914) Mrs. Mary Aldam was the president of the women’s branch of the Liberal Union at Willunga. She was known as Mrs. Aldam senior in later life to distinguish her from her sons’ (Belton, Frank and Wilfred) wives.
In later life she had an interest in local history and spoke to researchers of early history about her recollections of the wreck of the Tigress (1848) at Noarlunga as well as the stranding of Manhow (1857) at Port Willunga.
Mary Aldam died at the age of 95 years on 7 July 1937 in Willunga. She was buried with her husband Thomas Storey Aldam in St. Stephens Anglican Cemetery, Willunga.
